If you think being president of the United States is all fancy travel around the world and hobnobbing with the great and famous, well, look down and see the poop. Really. Speaking to a group of second-graders in suburban Virginia, President Obama took time out to explain that he has ups and downs and that not all of them are political. Some involve the First Dog, Bo. “The truth is, I run around a lot in the White House, but most of the time I’m working. So it’s not like I’m just running around having fun,” the president told children at the Long Branch Elementary School in Arlington, Va. He called the White House “a beautiful building, and there’s a big yard in the back called the South Lawn.

No matter what kind of trip you plan, you’re going to encounter more than beaches and palm trees when you reach Hawaii . Chances are you’ll bump into Pleasant Holidays , Aston lodgings or TS Restaurants . In fact, you may wind up doing business with all three, as I did on a Hawaii trip in late October. These companies are easy to overlook on the mainland, even though one is based in Westlake Village. But once you’re in the islands, they seem to be everywhere.

Fluffy, white broiler chickens pecked around the backyard while a group of two dozen people — a set of knives laid out before them — eyed them warily. Jordan Dawdy, his arm bearing tattoos of chickens and other farm animals, gave the crowd the run-down: Snap the neck, cut off the head, drain the blood, pluck, gut, done. He has the whole process down to seven minutes. The group shifted uneasily and prepared to dive in. Dawdy's "Yard to Skillet" workshops are booked full in this college town of 100,000.

September 23, 2010 | By Sheri Jennings, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Leave it to Italy --- a country where food and tradition go hand in hand — to be home to the first university dedicated to the art of making gelato. In fact, the Carpigiani Gelato University, located outside Bologna, is doing its all to ensure that the future of ice cream's closest relative, gelato, will continue to be that of a fresh product made from all-natural ingredients for local consumption. Carpigiani, which has sold gelato-making equipment since 1945, started teaching the classes in 2003.

Note from a newsroom colleague: Dear Chris, How was France? I imagined you sitting at a sidewalk cafe drinking Irish coffee and ogling a blond across the way while pretending to study the fingernails of your outstretched hand. Meanwhile, I've been getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the Tour de France on Versus. How you could be in Paris on an exceptionally long "assignment" taste-testing regional brandies or whatever it was you were doing and not report on the race is beyond me. But here is your chance at redemption.

Britney Spears wanted to slip into something more comfortable. For much of 2007, the pop diva had been on a jag of increasingly erratic behavior: shaving her head, attacking paparazzi with an umbrella, a stint in rehab. And at a party at the exclusive West Hollywood nightspot Winston's, Spears was acting out again. She downed some vodka, befriended a barmaid and convinced the woman to switch clothing with her in the club's restroom — all the way down to her undergarments.

Talk about the revenge of the nerds -- CBS' "Big Bang Theory" is arguably the hottest show on TV, and actor Simon Helberg, who plays rocket-scientist Romeo Howard Wolowitz, says it's been one wild ride. "It's quite amazing, the popularity of the thing," said Helberg, who lives in the Koreatown area with wife Jocelyn. "Everyone involved with it is just kind of walking around in awe. But we're just trying to make the best show we can and hope that people keep laughing." The series, fresh off winning a People's Choice award Wednesday for best comedy, returns from a holiday hiatus with a new episode on Monday.

Robert De Niro slept there. So did Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant. But the crowd that gathered Thursday morning to buy up a piece of the Hotel Bel-Air, a longtime playground of the rich and famous, was hunting for bargains, not souvenirs. Closed Oct. 1, the Los Angeles landmark is getting a two-year, multimillion-dollar face-lift. Its owners are selling off beds, rugs, lamps and other furnishings. About 100 people lined up outside a Santa Monica storefront where the items are on display, hoping to get a little stardust on the cheap.